Things Gina would have...

Gina loved music. Her tastes were broad, ranging from The Beatles and The Stones  via 80s pop all the way through to the modern day. British singer/songwriter Frank Turner was one of her favourites and she chose one of his songs Be More Kind  for her funeral. That song has just started on Spotify as I type this. Tomorrow (Saturday) Frank Turner plays a charity gig in Lancaster, in support of the Citizens Advice Service.  We have tickets and will battle through the sadness that Gina can't be with us, to do something in her memory. When she was well, Gina went to see Frank Turner more than once. On one occasion, she emailed him to ask if he would play one particular song Four Simple Words  - which he did in fact play. I remember her telling me about this when I had no idea who Frank Turner was. I've emailed him too and explained about Gina, about the two songs which are particularly important to her and the fact that we are going to be there. We'll see if he can squ...

Yesterday, something popped-up on Facebook about making breakfast pancakes in an air frier. Gina would have been trying that, without a doubt. As an aside, a Christmas tradition (unique to the Bradshaw household, as far as I'm aware), was to have pancakes with lemon & sugar - like Shrove Tuesday - for breakfast.  Gina loved pancakes. 

Some time in late 2024, I'm not sure precisely when, I read that a new Manic Street Preachers album was on the way in the new year. Gina was a big fan, so I excitedly passed-on the news. I remember realising, as the words passed my lips, that it was unlikely she would be here to enjoy it. She would also have realised that and I felt bad for bringing it up. Well here we are in mid-February. Gina has been gone for seven long weeks. The new Manics album " Critical Thinking " is here and I'm listening to it - on Spotify - something Gina persuaded me I should try. Gina would have loved it.

It's seven weeks since our funny, clever, kind, beautiful "little" girl lost her fight with cancer. The months leading up to that were hard but rather like the covid lock-downs, it all seems to blur into one, as we spent as much time as possible with Gina and tried to make her time in hospital a little more bearable. We were there every day as she met every challenge and every set-back with the same determination. She never gave in - and as those of us who are left behind struggle to come to terms with a world no longer lit by her presence, we somehow need to borrow a bit of that gritty determination. Gina's funeral was back home in Preston a month and a day after she passed away in Glasgow. If confirmation were needed - that she was universally loved by just about everyone that she ever knew - then the funeral proved that. I sometimes wish that I'd kept a diary through the last year. It may have helped - perhaps it would be too traumatic to revisit. Coming back t...